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Evaluation (7/7)

Max

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When we first started the course, our preliminary task (which you can find here) was designed with the sole intention to get us savvy with the technical shots stylistic of a film sequence. We learnt particularly about using Shot/Reverse-Shot to show dialogue (while still maintaing the 180 degree rule for continuity) and Match On Action to futher show we could maintain a smooth running sequence. We ended up using both of these to a much higher level of degree in our Anger vignette. Firstly, from the front of the actor to show him glaring at a pair of teens messing around, then cutting to an over the shoulder shot of his perspective of these teens. This is a common feature in films, especially when dialogue is involved. As well as this, in the same scene we used a Match On Action to demonstrate knowledge of how a film sequence is arranged and this comes where the character is trying to get litter inside a bin bag (the camera cuts from one side of him to another):

We feel this transition was successful as it shows clear continuity between shots, essential in creating a film which flows from one scene to another.

The other biggest difference between our preliminary task and our final cut would be the seriousness has increased dramatically. When we first went out and filmed our original task we had only half hour to do so and spent this time messing around with a script (which we then accordingly ran completely off during filming). Contrasting this, we had several weeks of ongoing filming and planning and so had the chance to really attempt to make a good effective media product. The level of both commitment, planning and experience of our final cut is markedly improved from the preliminary task.

Finally, one of the most important ways in which the two products differ is that the feedback we have had on our final cut now have been rather positive. We spent alot of time and effort in making this film opening and we are proud of it, whereas before we were not attempting to put out something beyond passable. Also, I really enjoyed every aspect of this project, as I knew how to use technology such as Final Cut Pro which - during the first task - was near impossible to understand.

Looking back, I feel that we learnt in the progression from our prelimiary task to the full product to take ourselves seriously and to take advantage of this equipment and software at hand to the best of our abilities.
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Hal

7.

I feel that both I and Max have made huge strides in our final construction and when I look back at our preliminary task and the effort we put into it this becomes all the more clearer. The aim of the task was to familiarise our selves with the camera and tripod and certain filming techniques that we would come to use in final construction. Technically we did as the task required but this was done with minimal effort whereas I think that we take a lot more care and pride in the construction our film opening. The camerawork is definitely superior second time around as demonstrated by this image I ‘found’ depicting our match on match action shot in the park scene in which the actor struggles to place some rubbish in the bag of which we see from two angles. The transition between the two shots is almost seamless and is a definite improvement on our last attempt when opening the door in the preliminary task. Our increase in editing prowess is also evident from the shot reverse again in the park scene in which we first have a close up of the actors face and is then followed by the reverse over the shoulder shot as he looks a some youths.   

And so in conclusion as a great man once said......

"Looking back, I feel that we learnt in the progression from our preliminary task to the full product to take ourselves seriously and to take advantage of this equipment and software at hand to the best of our abilities."
Couldn’t of put it better myself.

Evaluation (6/7)

Max

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In terms of actual equipment, we used a Panasonic HDC SD60 camera,standard issue  a tripod as well as several different types of sound recorders such as the Zoom H2 and an Edirol high quality voice recorder. On the Mac computer we worked on we also had access to Final Cut Pro for the actual edit and post production work on our film opening as well as software such as Soundtrack Pro to help us overcome obstacles with mixing the sound. These technologies ranged from universally easy to run to mindnumbingly disasterous, particularly the Zoom H2 and Soundtrack Pro respectively.

When recording dialogue from the scene inside the car we placed the Zoom H2 mic inside the car and recorded both sound and action at the same time to sync up later. Final Cut Pro was actually very competent software with which to achieve this and saved us lots of time as we could very easily do this. However, combining the vocal work with Luke's piano playing was a much more arduous task, as - unfortunately - his own playing went out of sync from the recording at some points, which we could not alter after it had been recorded.

Another surprise was the complete ease of crafting a successful ident. Here we simply took a Magritte painting and used Photoshop 4 to combine this with a film director's clapper board which we then mixed with a random snippet of Luke's piano playing in order to create a rather effective ident with a sound tag.

Overall the technologies used and required to help us create our final cut film opening were for the most part easy to use aside from the gruelling Soundtrack Pro (Audacity would have been a much simpler program to use) and understandable Mac/PC differences (I struggled for about 20 minutes to figure out how to copy and paste on a Mac with no right click!)

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Hal

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Panasonic HDC SD60 camera: simple, easy to operate handheld camcorder that whilst not of the highest quality it did get the job done. We were already familiar with how these kind of cameras work so it was easy to pick up.

 

Tripod: This was imperative to our filming experience as it helped keep our camera steady during filming. It wouldn’t have been possible to get the quality of film we did if we had to resort to manually holing the camera.

Art of the title: This website was used to view other film openings which we analyzed and used for inspiration. Using this site helped teach me to outsource more via the internet when researching ideas. 

Photoshop: This piece of software was used to create our ident via superimposing one image onto another, inserting some text and using a distortion effect to bring it all together. I have learnt to better navigate Photoshop’s many functions to get the right tool for the tool for the job.

Zoom H2 : This audio recording device was helpful in recording both layers of our sound track and the dialogue in the car park scene. It is also very easy to use and records at a high quality.

YouTube: We used YouTube as the platform in which to publish our film. We were able to publish our video free-of-charge from which we could then embed onto our blogs as evidence.

Blogger:  We used blogger as a way to document our progress throughout the project as the weeks went by. I decided to use it because its features allow you to correct old posts and also embed videos, images and sound. I had never used blogger prior to media studies or indeed any other blogging website but I still found it to be an invaluable tool.  

Vocaroo: This site allowed us to vocally record introductions to posts in order to give them a fresh outlook. I learnt to use it; what else can I say?

Evaluation (5/7)

Max

How did you attract/address your audience?



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Hal

5.      How did you attract/address your audience?

I have attempted to address my target audience via making a film opening that reflects the sort of film that appeals to my audience’s sensibilities and tastes. Rather then the film being centred around CGI and other special effects, the sequence places an emphasis on plot, character development and cinematography.  I further attempt to engage my audience through the use of music in an attempt to invoke an emotional response and create a certain mood. This will compel them to continue to watch the rest of the film as they begin to form an interpersonal bond with what they see on screen.  I also attempt to draw audiences in by creating a sense of mystery with the opening; as curiosity is universal amongst every cinema-goer I hope to entice audiences to want to discover more about the film.  It seems important to note that there are several ways that distributors attract an audience to a film that were not available to us in this exercise. The big studios spend up to a further 100% of the production budget on prints and advertising. This is why the big films saturate our consciousness via posters, billboards, TV adverts, bus advertising etc. Smaller films attempt to generate a buzz, often using festivals as a platform to get critical acclaim and then using this to launch them into radio and television appearances and magazines interviews for the director and stars. More recently, the internet has been used as a way to generate buzz among certain target audiences using viral advertising. The Blair witch project was the first famously successful film at doing this but it is a method since adopted by many other bigger releases such as Cloverfield and Super 8.

Below is a link to a quick review of our opening by a member of our target audience.
 

Review

Evaluation (4/7)

Max

Who would be the audience for your media product?

When we think about who it is our film is aimed at it's easier to imagine a hypothetical person to represent our target audience.

I see the person we aim our film at to be a 40 something male, more than likely struggling with some form of crisis (well, who isn't?), stuck in a stereotypical wall-on-wall office with perhaps with more than a fleeting interest in films. He would prefer the quieter and simple but thought-provoking style of, for instance, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford over the more complex/really weird style of say David Lynch. Someone who thought I Heart Huckabee's was too 'out there' and that About Schmidt was powerful and moving (it wasn't for the record, and Broken Flowers was much better). Oh, and he never finished reading 1984 because it was too bleak, yet loved Brazil. Come to think of it I think our media product might be aimed at my dad...



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Hal

4. Who would be the target audience for your media product?

We are targeting our film opening at avid cinema goers or film buffs. There are several unifying characteristics of this group although it largely transcends gender, race and socio-economic grouping. Film forms a large part of their perception of themselves and the wider world. They are likely to self-define themselves as being film buffs or similar. Although they enjoy being ‘entertained’ by films their engagement goes beyond this. They see film as a source of art and information as well as escapism and spectacle. They frequently attend film festivals and programmed seasons and are drawn towards independent cinemas. Their social life is often geared around film in some ways. They often collect memorabilia to do with films, search out hard to find titles and read film related books and magazines. They might have favourite directors that they follow, or even a favourite national cinema but they tend to watch a wide range of film that goes beyond genre etc.

Evaluation (3/7)

Max

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Although certain to be headed for glory and fame, as of now neither Hal nor myself have really broke the mainstream with our filmmaking. This is actually important to remember, as getting what is only a student film distibuted around is a near impossible task. Even Kevin Smith with his directorial debut Clerks managed to snap up a distribution deal with Miramax Films and the sheer effort on Smith's part is still bafflingly heroic (even if he did go on to make the astronomically terrible sequel years later...)

If we take out of the equation all constraints on us including the quality of the cameras used (although, both Inland Empire and Paranormal Activity have enjoyed great success filmed without the need for top-of-the-line professional equipment) I would imagine, stylistically our film could potentially be distributed by a company like Warp Films, the independant label responsible for films such as Bunny and the Bull, Four Lions as well as music videos by the amazing Chris Cunningham (e.g. the weirdest thing you'll see today - Rubber Johnny).

Warp Films would be a good candidate for the distribution of our final film as it deals with films that do not rely on above-the-line talent or overtly splashy special effects but rather the human black comedy-drama style films which our product takes its cue's from. Certainly the film would see it's desired audience here rather than if distributed by a big name company such as Warner Bros. who seek explicitly to 'minimise cost; maximise profits' rather than focus on artistic credibility. Also, a company such as any one of the 'Big Six' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_film_studio#Today.27s_Big_Six) would unlikely be interested in the type of film we are making and certainly not likely to correctly profile its target audience.
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Hal

3. What kind of media institution would distribute your media film and why?

When taking into account the genre and artistic style we have attempted to incorporate into our film I believe we would find it near impossible to gain the attention and funding from the major film distribution companies such as Columbia or Warner Bros who would not see our film as a viable business opportunity; shunning any artistic promise the film may show because it won’t do well at the box office. Instead I think a more likely candidate to distribute our film would be studio canal or Artificial Eye who tend to be more sympathetic towards films that may not be as commercially successful, they are also keen to promote British films which would work to my advantage. I think the best way to distribute our film would be to enter it into various film festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, Berlin etc and perhaps pick up a few awards to boost awareness and gain critical acclaim. I feel this is also the best way to reach my target audience of regular film goers in their thirties to forties who tend to follow what happens within the film industry via magazines, internet and other outlets, as they tend to appreciate a film that has performed well at a festival. I also think that my film would be well suited to be promoted via a competition in a film magazine such as Sight and Sound because as I have previously mentioned it is a something that my target audience tends to read.

Evaluation (2/7)

Max

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

One of the ways in which our film opening excels is in the amount of people involved on film in just under two minutes. All in all we had 8 characters in this time (although admittedly only 4 actors besides us...) and whilst our intention was to make a film that involved people of all ages and backgrounds this was not possible to showcase in such a short time span. However, each primary character represents one of the five stages of grief, namely: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance respectively. If you could consider these each to be a type of social group then you could argue we had quite a wide stretch.

1. Acceptance - this character is the first introduced to the viewer and is done so sat in an empty hall at a piano. He is dressed in a plain black top and was written in mind as a troubled but quiet teen. When considering the representation of social groups, it could be argued as unexpected for a teenager to be able to play the piano so well.


Luke represents acceptance and also understanding which we attempted to hint at by using a match cut to connect this scene with the opening shot of the gravestones. He stays practically still the whole time only moving to begin playing as the camera cuts to...

2. Denial - of all the characters introduced we know perhaps the littlest of this one from his opening segment. During filming I explained to Jake that he should look up and smile without trying to look too creepy. That his character seems at peace in this shot and almost deathly pale was intentional: we wanted to give off the impression at first that it could be a dead body, but sadly he moved about too much!


This scene cuts straight into the next with Jake leaving the room and cutting to an establishing shot where a van drives by in the same direction (this was our quirky Star Wars transition style, every scene is connect to the next, visually speaking).

3. Anger - perhaps the easiest of all the characters to discuss, we gave this character the most screen time in the final cut as we felt he represented his associated emotion better than any of the others. The grimaced Clint Eastwood-esque glare coupled with the action in the scenes caused this character to come across as scornful. Here, Mark captured the essence of what we were trying to create perfectly: a mood of bitterness and general disdain for others.

The disgust at 'youths' on the other side of the fence shows us how his representation as a man who feels screwed over by the world and the genuine frustration at being unable to actually be a litterpicker only serves to exasperate his unhappiness.

4. Bargaining - This vignette was the only one to contain dialogue as we felt it was too vague with just two character sat mute in a car. I tried to play this role as though frightened but strong for his partner. It was never our intention to turn this couple into homosexual characters but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise when we realised that the dialogue seemed a little odd without it being held between two partners.


This representation is perhaps the most dynamic, as these are the only two characters to physically interact with one another and for them to be partners could almost be seen as a twist on the standard representation of the social group as nothing prior to them leaning to kiss one another indicates this at all. In this respect, I think our film opening was successful in not being limited to heterosexual characters.

 5. Depression - this is an easier one visually. Contrasted against the slightly more hopeful bedroom earlier on, we see that this character is cold, alone and we get a sense of bleakness worse than before. That Hal slams the alarm so hard only to go back to sleep is an effective representation of depression and the complete want not to face the outside world. As you can see, of all the shots this one is the darkest whilst the first was the brightest and thus, most hopeful.


Overall our film opening does a successful job in representing different social groups without being too displaced by the lack of professional actors/interaction.

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Hal

            2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The most consistently portrayed social group within our media product is the young adults/teenager group. Although originally intended to consist of a diverse group of people from varying ages, ethnicities and classes to show the universality of death (The main theme within our product). We were forced to limit the range of our cast due to the lack of people willing to take part in our film. We instead opted to portray the diversity of young people today through use of mise en scene and the actions of our actors. For example the first character within our film Acceptance is dressed relatively smart and is playing the grand piano in the second and final scene, this demonstrates a degree of creativity and formality that young people can possess and puts them in a generally good light. Contrast this with the two ‘hoodlums’ littering in the third scene; they live up to the stereotype of young people being ‘up to no good’ commonly seen in various other media institutions (this can be particularly seen through their costume). Another example of the diversity displayed in our film is the fourth scene with the homosexual couple in the car park. This deviates from the typical convention of ‘boy meets girl’ often seen in dramas today. However, we again end up conforming to yet another stereotype of young people in the penultimate scene with Depression, in which he is simply lying in bed. The audience may mistake this for laziness (however if we were to complete the entire film this would be overturned) as this is commonly associated with teenage boys, we also attempt to reinforce this idea with the minimal lighting we employed to give a kind of dull lifeless feel to the scene . Effectively we have polarised our portrayal of young people with some aspects conforming to stereotypes within the media today and others showing sides less commonly portrayed. Finally in scene four; Anger (our only actor over the age of eighteen) is represented as a typical white, working class, grumpy old man. We attempt to get this across through his sour demeanour for example, in the close up of his disgruntled face and behaviour such as when he kicks the plastic bottle in frustration at seeing the two youths litter.

Evaluation (1/7)

Max

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Looking at the actual film opening we have constructed, many things become immediately apparent (some desirable; others not so). Firstly, one of the main ways in which our product was a success is that it created a consistently bleak tone, mostly achieved through the inclusion of a non-digetic piece of music over the top to help tie each vignette together. Without repeating myself too much, our final cut film opening was still in essence a mild homage to both Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia and Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Decalogue series (in terms of style and tone respectively). We decided to record a commentary over the Magnolia opening which influenced us so:

The most common feedback we have had on our product is that their is a very clear mood but the actual sequence doesn't make sense. I would attempt to defend myself here by pointing out that most film openings do not actually give a sense of an overall plot and attempting to squeeze in developing themes in just under 2 minutes would be an impossible feat. Having said that, one convention we used was the montage, which is rarely found in a film opening. Montages can help show time passing or just connect different events/characters, and with doing this we allowed ourselves plenty of opportunity to create roles that our audience could connect with.

Each of our characters represented a different stage of grief in the script but we did not feel it necessary to go out of our way to spell this out to the viewer in our opening sequence. This means that as far as the parts go, none of the characters had names and so they were being judged solely on the overall mood of the piece. The music which plays throughout was selected very carefully to craft a mournful tone, and all the different voices overlaying each other singing together but all different parts was key to the all-encompassing nature of what we were intending.

Another convention popular in film openings are credit titles. We chose not to create a separate title sequence, instead including them throughout the sequence in the form of a simple white font on black screen. Originally we had intended for the titles to be over the top of the action (for example, as in In The Loop) but we found that by including our titles breaking up the scenes it allowed for better flow and the overall continuity and pace of the piece is much more effective as such.

We also included an ident at the beginning of our film, aptly and imaginitively titled "Galvin and Brown". We took a Rene Magritte painting and surprisingly easy photoshop tools to create this:

Overall, our opening sequence is successful in that it looks like what it is supposed to thanks in part to forms and conventions such as typical dialogue, mise-en-scéne and continuity through sequence. Although passable as a student film however, this opening would unlikely be enough for a feature-length film due to constraints such as the lack of professional actors and the cameras used not being suited to the style of filming. Also, we would have liked to have more diversity between characters in terms of age and sex rather than people who owed me a favour and my Dad...

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Hal

How does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?

Ident: When creating the ident for our production company, we decided that we wanted it to both reflect our company’s ethos and seem appropriate to our film. The image consists of the painting False Mirror by Rene Magritte with a director’s clapper board superimposed into the centre with the names Galvin and Brown in the director’s column. We also used a distortion effect to make the two separate images blend together as one. There are a few connotations that we have tried to impress into our ident, for example the very fact we have used a recognised piece of art in our ident displays our commitment to making films that are artistically impressive as opposed to just making them for a profit. Magritte was known both for the thought-provoking nature of his work as well as its inherent humour which we feel nicely reflected the sort of work we hoped to produce.

Whilst I do believe that our ident does conform to the conventions of other idents in terms of its length and the message it tries to convey, it is important to note that most idents are accompanied by some form of animation which ours does not have. If we possessed the technical know-how and funding we could further develop our ident to include an animation to make it appear more professional; we could for

example make the eye blink or board snap. Overall I am pleased with the ident.

Titles:For our titles we decided to use the classic white font on black background because we felt we needed to create a ‘serious’ atmosphere due to the nature of our film and the themes within it. We felt that any attempt to create any flashy/flamboyant titles would be demeaning to the sensitivity of the issue we take on in our film and would serve to create the wrong type of atmosphere it requires. The titles in our film also use the font commonly found on gravestones in keeping with the theme of the film. Not only do the titles in our film perform the main function of giving credit to the people who participated in it, they also serve to help create a sense of continuity. Certain shot transitions did not seem natural when we were in the process of editing, so we came up with the solution of interjecting titles at certain points throughout the film to maintain a smoother rhythm. However this came at a price because the time lapses between each of the titles vary which does seem to throw the pace of our film off a bit, I do however feel the payoff was worth the sacrifice.

Graveyard scene: This shot is a medium shot of the back of four graves (so as not to reveal the names of the deceased); this immediately establishes the premise of the film and gives an insight into what is going to happen and also build intrigue into who, how, when and why these people died and what their relevance to the film is. This is also when we begin to use the non diegetic sound; namely our home grown version of ‘Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space’ by Spiritualised. Using non diegetic music is very common in film openings so ours begins to conform to conventions right from its outset.

School hall scene: We then fade in midway through a dolly shot in a school hall filled with rows of chairs either side of the camera; moving towards a stage and culminating in a pan towards someone sitting at a grand piano. This is then followed by a high angle mid-shot of Acceptance over the piano followed by a close up of his hands as he plays the first note, which is then used to make the transition to the next shot. Through use of mise-en-scene I think that we clearly establish that this shot takes place in some form of college/school for example the plastic chairs lined up together in an orderly fashion helps contribute to this feel. Some of the more astute audience members will also have noticed how the four chairs and four graves from the previous scene are framed almost identically to each other and will perhaps draw some kind of connection between the two. Whilst not intentional I like the way the chair layout is not dissimilar to the layout of a cinema, which is where in all likelihood our target audience will watch our film. Despite the unstableness of the dolly shot this scene remains my favourite because it’s packed full of connation’s that the audience can identify even if they weren’t intentionally placed, this is a convention of any great hallmark film that I think we pull off rather well.

Bedroom 1 scene: The next shot begins with a medium close up of Denial sleeping in bed followed in quick succession by a close up as he awakes with a slight smile on his face. The camera then steps back to reveal more details of the room as denial climbs out of bed. I have a kind of love hate relationship with this shot in that I hate how we filmed and edited it. Take for example the jump cut between the medium close up to the close up in which the position of denials head clearly moves from one area of the bed to another thus messing up continuity. What I do love however about this scene is the construction of the mise-en-scene and how we get an insight into Denial’s personality solely through the way he has decorated his room. For example what I take from this shot is that he is cultured, as illustrated by the various posters on the wall and creative as illustrated by the keyboard tucked away in the corner. This use of Mise-en-scene to establish character is also a common convention of film openings. Finally I think that this scene is disproportionately short in comparison to other scenes in the sequence which I think doesn’t work very well.

Park scene:  We are led into the next scene via the match cut of Denial getting out of bed and the car driving past in the next establishing shot of the Old pier.  This is then followed by another establishing the park overlooking the pier. There is then a series of shots depicting Anger looking angry as he cleans up the park and watches some hooligans litter. In terms of conventions of a film opening we have conformed to in this scene, I would say a major one would be establishing the location of the film as it clearly shows that the location is some form of seaside town. However we have subverted the convention of when these shots take place as they would typically take place early as a master shot whereas we take approximately forty seconds before we do so. I don’t think the film suffers for it. Finally I believe that this scene is the most visually pleasing of the film with some great scenery and large diversity of shots including:  

·        Establishing shot of seaside town

·        Establishing shot of the park

·        Long shot of anger turning away from the sea

·        Medium shot of anger looking into the distance

·        Over the shoulder shot of youths from angers prespective demonstrating shot reverse shot

·        Low angle mid shot of anger picking up the rubbish which we match cut to.....

·        Long shot of anger picking up the rubbish

I could go on……..

Pease take into account the Magnolia overdub in my evaluation.

Construction-Final

- thank you all for your continued support, faith and cooperation.

Preliminary task-Continuity

Right at the beginning of our course we were burdened with the task of going out with some cameras with no experience whatsoever. Apparently this is important for some reason, so we have included it on our blog (hopefully never to be seen by any potential universities, law firms or romantic interests):



We learnt to take ourselves seriously a little later on, and I shaved off the ridiculous beard.

DAY FOUR: Solitude

Hal returns!

After watching the rough cut interjected with the titles and extracts from our storyboard, I believe the project is coming along nicely, however I do have a bone to pick with the dispersion and length of the titles.

Currently they lack consistency of time between each title needed for an opening drama sequence and perhaps order could be changed but other then that I am really pleased with font and production company names Max chose to go with.

It's good to be back.

DAY THREE: Lamentation

Distaster strikes! Sadly, our post-edit reshoot did not occur.

With rough-cut deadline looming, we have come up with a temporary solution to the problem by incorporating still images from our animatic to fill in the gaps.

Our runtime - rather staggeringly - has managed to stay under the two minute maximum, which we are quite chuffed about.

There is no use being cynical about our project. Cynicism is a lazy way of saying you've been burned.

Hopefully by next week we will have managed to film the extra segments and our film will look tip top once more!

We have uploaded our rough cut to youtube for your viewing pleasures. Although do - of course - bear in mind that it is a work in progress:

DAY TWO: Progress

Editing went well today. We synced up our beautiful soundtrack with the footage we had managed to get over the weekend and after even more cutting down, we managed to get our film to a neat and tidy 1:20
gem.

Here is some of the feedback we got on our first edit and how we have solved this:

• Initial shot is too long (it has since been halved in time)
• Sound gets 'ridiculously' loud for a few seconds (oops! lowered this volume increase considerably)
• A little bit of a confusing storyline (with the added footage hopefully this wont seem so glaring)
• Continuity errors (for this, we decided to have titles against a black screen rather than over the action. That way the scenes flow more seamlessly and there is no dodgy transitions between shots)
• Music is great (boo yah.)

DAY ONE: Edit

"We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane."

We have begun editing our film. It is going well, spirits are high.

In a bit more detail, we spent a good hour or so importing/culling our filming and putting them in a vague sequence, despite camera issues preventing us from having the first half of our planned opening...
Regardless of this, we feel we're on a roll with the sound recorded from the Zoom easily syncing up with our filming dialogue (which was a bit of a worry)

Obstacle overcome, happiness prevails

Mxx

Camera techniques

I would have gotten this post finished much sooner if I hadn't got completely stuck on http://tvtropes.org for the past 3 or so hours.
Listed are several examples of camera techniques (particularly transitions) and some famous examples:

Match cut:
Definitely an obvious choice and something we will attempt to include in our film opening, the most famous example of which is seemingly more well known than the actual film it comes from, 2001: A Space Odyssey, where a bone tossed up into the air turns into a space station. Tropes describes this as 'a cut which matches an object in the first shot with an object in the second shot. The objects must be similar in size and position within the shot. Can be used to add harmony and continuity to a sudden shift in time or place.' The extent of this transition's popularity is evident by that I saw it used to match a Scotch glass with a 50 pence piece on Law and Order last night. It is also used through fading on home renovation shows to give a 'before and after' effect.

Jump cut:
"An abrupt edit, cutting from one shot to another almost exactly like it". Similar to a Gilligan cut, which is used for comedic effect, rather than used to startle the audience for a scare.

Wipe:
Used to switch scenes in many of the Star Wars films (particularly A New Hope) as though an ongoing and straightfoward story. The scene literally is wiped across by the next, like turning the pages of a book.

Tilt/Pan:
Panning involves any movement of the camera horizontally and tilting vertically. 

Tracking shot: Where the camera moves physically. Orson Welles was the king of this as can be seen here.

Dolly: This is where the camera moves forward or backwards specifically. Named after the actual mover the camera would have to be attached to during the golden age of cinema. We plan to use this combined with a pan to the left in our film opening.

There are trillions of shots and transitions worth looking up about and fantastic examples for each one, but I can only brush the tip of the iceberg.

Locations

Google Earth is truly an invaluable tool. 

-Milton cemetery (shot 1)

-Hans Price Academy school hall (shots 2-5, 22-25)

-Vibrant bedroom (shots 6-8)

This would be my bedroom.
Seek not the holy grail lest ye wish to find more than ye bargained for.

-Overlooking old pier (shots 9-13)

-Appropriate looking car park (shots 14-19)

-Decrepit bedroom (shots 20-21)

This would be my mums room.
I'm not going to post pictures of it on here, but rest assured: it exists.

Shooting schedule

Storyboard

*There is a slight discrepancy in the storyboard, as I accidentally missed out shot 17. Oops.

Animatic

Props/Costume

Tings we gon need:
-Camera
-Tripod
-Litter picker
-Litter! (can & crisps)
-Alarm clock
-Grand piano
-Car
-Bedside cabinet
-Two beds
-(something for us to wheel the camera on)
-Lots of coffee
-Zoom recorder (for dialogue)
-4 chairs

Tings we gon wear:
Acceptance (Luke) - formal attire; a slightly higher quality of dress than the rest of our troop
Denial (Jake) - pyjamas
Anger (Mark) - green reflector jacket, rough unkempt look.
Snotty-nosed brats causing a rumpus (Max & Hal in disguise) - standard juvenile delinquent attire
Bargaining (Max) - smart casual: t-shirt and jeans
Bargaining's partner (James) - as above
Depression (Hal) - naked as the day he was born and as God intended.

Shot list

Shooting script

We are actually really quite proud of this.

Moodboard

It's hard to say what images can say about drama films, as most drama is conveyed over a period of time, not noticable in any single captured imagine. However, for a general mood or tone this idea is much more successful. Here is a collage of images that we think represent what we are trying to evoke with our opening:

Pictured are a number of stills from classic too-deep-for-you films, including the Tree of Life, the Fountain, Holy Mountain and El Topo. Whilst we aren't attempting something anywhere near as out there as these, they are often held in high regard for the beauty of their cinematography, which is something we are definitely interested in emulating (as much as possible with a hand held student camera).

Title sequence analysis: Naked Lunch

For my title sequence, I am going to look at Cronenberg's unfaithful adaptation of William Burrough's novel Naked Lunch. It is lauded by critics as a throw back to the font type and stylistic features of the early 1950's and shows a clear influence from the works of Saul Bass, acclaimed for his collaborations with Hitchcock on designing innovative titles for some of his best known films.

 

The free-form jazz solo which accompanies the titles immediately sets the sense of unease prevalent throughout the film and the soundtrack itself particularly unique in crafting a mood before we are even introduced to any of the characters.




The sequence is simple but effective; various shapes of different colour move towards the centre of the screen and illuminate the 'above-the-line' talent. There are easy comparisons to draw between this style and that of the Hitchcock classics 'Psycho' and 'Vertigo' and many others. The font used is bold but a tiny bit 'funky', possibly used to instill a sense of the Beatnik era in the viewer.

Having also spent some time researching the website 'Art of the Title', I also discovered some opening titlesequences I had forgotten about, including Twelve Monkeys, Moon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang as well as TV shows such as Six Feet Under and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace.

Treatment

As two visionary directors on the edge of breakthrough success, we both find it difficult at times to compromise on our ideas of what exactly we want to do, although we are both keen on the overall idea.
What follows is a rough sketching we each gave as to how we see our opening sequence playing out.

Hal:
1. Black screen, one line of v.o
2. Fade up on ext. graveyard. LS of 4 graves in a row, with the camera position slightly to one side implying space for a 5th grave.
3. Tilt up directly to the sun, match cut straight to...
4. Int. bedroom of a child, - lamp. Cue music. Camera at pillow level, and begins to ascend upwards slowly but firmly, approx 10 secs.
5. Cut to: camera - practically on ceiling, looking down on new bedroom, from same position in room, yet continuing to move. repeat this step 3 more times, each with a distinctively different style.
6. The final bedroom features an actual person in bed. Camera still continuing to move for 4 more seconds, then stops as man rolls out of bed and exits room.
7. Cue titles on sound of closed door.

Max:
1. Black screen, one line of v.o
2. Fade up on ext. graveyard. LS of 4 graves in a row, with the camera position slightly to one side implying space for a 5th grave.
3. Int. shot - School hall. Camera is at the doors of the room moving slowly forward into it smoothly. It rolls all the way down the middle while ever so slightly panning to the left where we see a schoolboy sat at a grand piano. The camera stops directly facing him and he begins to play. This plays throughout.
4. Int. shot - bedroom. We see our first character, Mrs Kay. She applies lipstick, pouts her lips and says 'Another day. Another day.' Smiles at the camera. Cut straight to:
5. Ext. shot - park. A grouchy old man picks up litter wearing a green reflecting jacket. From the ground, we see him kick a can and it rolls off screen straight to:
6. Ext. shot - hospital grounds. The wheel of a car, which rolls into the car park of the hospital. We see a young man switch off the engine, look at the passenger, then leave the car. The camera here is attached to the car door, slamming back at the passenger.
7. Int. shot - bedroom. From a bedside cabinet we see a girl turn in bed look at her clock and then hide herself back under the covers. Then a ceiling BIV of her room, a la Garden State.
8. Int. shot - School hall. Boy plays final chord, tilts his head back and looks directly up at the ceiling.
9. TITLES

Deciding not to take into account the plausibility/filmability of all these ideas - most of which were ad-libbed while typing - as rather ambitious workers, we know no limits. Yet...

Audience research

We went out across the college and asked about audience expectations of an opening sequence. Lots of these video's turned out to be unusable, but we have uploaded some of these responses to the blog:

Ben believes the audience should be introduced to the main characters at the very least and mentions the importance of a clearly demonstrated conflict/theme. He also said that he expects a film to grab his attention within the first five/ten minutes.

Julian clearly expects much of a film's opening. He regurgitated Ben's idea of the main themes/overall tone being introduced early on in a film and says a film should establish both a setting and location within the first scene.

He expects too much of us.

Aisha's talking head said that she has a particular penchant for films like Memento or Swordfish where the ending is shown right from the beginning. She also thinks that with an opening sequence, rather than a simple title sequence there should at the very least be a scene before the actual film begins (I think this is called a cold opening?)

Film opening analysis: A Bittersweet Life

I set apart an afternoon for this homework. I was quite excited to do it. This is how it all went down:

1. Pop DVD into my computer, finger ready at the PrtScn key
2. Begin watching film Put subtitles on, try again
3. Watch opening scene
4. End up watching the whole film
5. Film ends
6. Go back to opening scene and begin copying each shot of the sequence
7. Check online for software with which to make this arduous and testing task easier
8. Have no luck in doing so
9. Pause, Alt+PrtScn, Paint, Ctrl+V, Select, Highlight, Ctrl+X, New, Ctrl+V, Save, Play...
10. Repeat step nine 61 times.
11. Midnight

Needless to say, I underestimated quite how frustratingly 'crashy' computers can be under pressure. Will annotate each of these tomorrow. For now I'd just like to get them all uploaded and have a nice relaxing aneurysm in peace.
_________________________________________________________________

 1. Here we go! After several other names are presented to us in this font and format, our voiceover begins and we see the writer/director/brainchild/dreamweaver fade into a shot of trees brushing from side to side in the wind...

2. These trees continue to sway as we slowly move from an almost black & white into vibrant colour and slightly windier weather

3. Over this, we are told of an ancient proverb. A disciple asks his master whether it is the wind or the leaves that flow. The master tells him it is neither, but instead the heart and the mind.

 4. From here, we cut to footprints against a marble floor.

Cinematographer Kim Ji-yong uses this film to seemingly develop a trademark visual style, marked by a clean and immaculate set with a flourish of red to seperate it from simply looking intentionally bland.

The camera tilts up the mans body while following him walk, yet we only for a split second see the side of his face.

5. With this shot we are introduced to our protangonist, Kim Sun-woo.

The camera moves towards Sun-woo and mimics the movement of the man walking towards him, who soon comes into shot behind him and goes right up to the table



6. The camera moves out from behind a blind to show us the two men conversing, as though we are viewing a private conversation. If I had remembered to put the subtitles on, I wouldn't have to explain what they were talking about.

 

The consierge asks for the dining man's assistance in disposing some unwelcome guests who are refusing to leave. We instantly get an indication of the man's style: he cooly and non-chalantly says he'll be right there and the man leaves him to finish his food.

7. mmmmmm.

8. We see Sun-woo take one bite out of his pudding and then quietly leave his table and set off to dispose of the trouble like a total badass.

9. The camera pans around the bar area while our character approaches. This shot best illustrates director Kim Joo Woon's style, with long shots at a steady pace, as though we are moving alongside Sun-woo.

As he walks along the white strip on the floor, he indicates a dirty area to a nearby cleaner, who immediately stops what she is doing in order to clean that spot instead. Something as little as this tells us enough about Sun-woo, and also confirms him as a man of authority.

Coupling this with his attire and suave yet pressing walk, we already know that whatever it is this man has been tasked to deal with, it is almost certain he will be able to do so without losing his cool.

10. The next shot detailing Sun-woo's movement through the hotel begins walking down a corridor before he appears at the other end walking towards us. This shot makes it appear as though we are passing him by on his travels.

11. Next we see him pass by another person and see the other man watch Sun-woo as he barely bats an eyelid back.

12. In the next shot of his travels, Sun-woo walks past an open door and seeing some movement, pauses for a moment to check out whether there is anything suspicious he should be aware of. This again hints at his role in the hotel and certainly the film.

It is also interesting to note that when the man in the shot before is watching him he pays him little interest, but here where the man in the distance cannot see him, he takes a moment to pause. This preference to stay voyeuristic is important as it makes him a much more expected spy later in the film.

14. As Sun-woo makes his trek, there is a significant decline in clenliness at the hotel. Compare the set of marble tiles with a red focus where we began with the brick walls and dank looking hall we see him walk through now.

15. This sequence has been edited together so that we cut directly from Sun-woo opening a door into him already walking in the new room. This is known as ellipsis, and gives his walk a gritty, unreal quality.

 In a continuation of the same shot, Sun-woo continues until he is stood in the door of a room of several relaxed men watching TV. He does not say or do anything until one of the men notices him.

When one does spot Sun-woo is watching them, he immediately springs to his seat and begins to get dressed, alerting the others to do the same. A fourth man also sits up and sheepishly looks over at Sun-woo who beckons him to get up. During all this, he stands there without saying a word.

 

The opening scene continues a futher two minutes and features a fantastic fight scene which completely contrasts the long shots it begins with, almost doubling the amount of shots in the same timeframe. That this flowing sequence is done with only a handful of tracking shots, yet lasts just over 2 minutes shows us how a lot of information about a character and setting can be displayed to an audience without the need for dialogue. 

Which is pretty comforting considering what we have planned for our opening sequence. Hooray!